Venables becomes $2 million man as BOT approves football raises

CLEMSON – The Clemson football team fashioned another top-five finish, a third-straight ACC Championship, a third-straight College Football Playoff appearance in 2017 and reeled in a top-five recruiting class Wednesday, leading to raises and bonuses and raises for the coaches approved by the Board of Trustees Thursday.

The deals were worth $6.585 in total compensation, after sitting at $6.025 million a year ago. Brent Venables received a three-year deal worth $6 million that runs through 2021 and makes him the second-highest paid assistant in the country. All assistant coaches' contracts run through 2020. Tony Elliott, Jeff Scott and Venables have deals that run through 2021.

The raise for Venables makes him the second-highest paid assistant in the country. LSU defensive coordinator Dave Aranda recently received a deal worth $2.5 million. Aranda and Venables were the nation's two highest-paid assistants last season - Aranda checked in at $1.8 million per year and Venables was at $1.7 million.

Venables also earns bonuses for how his defense performs in statistical rankings. In metrics determined by Sports Source Analytics, he will earn $50,000 for a top-10 "relative" defense and $100,000 for a top-5 performance, as well as a $50,000 bonus for a top-10 total defense or $100,000 for a top-5 ranking.

Athletic Director Dan Radakovich told TigerNet that it was important to make sure Venables and the rest of the coaching staff is paid fair market value.

"It's very important. We've been very fortunate the last few years to be able to have some really good resources to be able to sit down with Coach Swinney and have him take the lead - because he works with these guys each and every day - to be able to create the opportunities for not only the on the field coaches but the administrative folks and the support personnel," Radakovich said. "We kind of pulled together a pool of money that we think is available within our total athletic department budget and then coach and I sit down and move through it and you saw the result of that today."

Radakovich said Aranda's recent contract was a marker when it came to re-doing Venables' contract.

"I think there's a little part of that associated with it, for sure," he said. "Obviously, Brent has done an incredible job as our defensive coordinator and the results on the field show it. There is (commitment from both parties). As we move ahead, we want to make sure we do the things necessary to make sure that he stays here. It was just a conversation. There's a market figure out there. Where can we go given the pool of resources that we have? It was one of the first things that Dabo mentioned."

Radakovich then said it was important to keep Clemson's core staff intact.

"I think it's fantastic. One of the great things when you look at our assistant coach pool over the last four or five years, it's been very consistent with the people who are there," he said. "Of course, Coach (Marion) Hobby went to coach in the NFL and Coach (Dan) Brooks retired but outside of that, we've been able to keep that core group of individuals together for four or five years and I think that' incredibly important. That doesn't happen on a lot of staffs. I think that has a lot to say about the culture that Dabo has pulled together within the program. People want to stay. People want to be involved. It's a great place to work."

All on-field assistants will receive a series of bonuses for postseason play, starting with an ACC Championship appearance ($10,000) and a bowl game with eight or more regular season wins ($20,000) or College Football Playoff non-semifinal appearance ($40,000) or College Football Playoff semifinal appearance ($50,000) or College Football Playoff Championship Appearance ($60,000) or College Football Champion ($25,000).

Scott and Elliott, who each made $625,000 in 2016 and $800,000 in 2017 have now been bumped up to $850,000 for 2018. Elliott also earned a $250,000 bonus as the Frank Broyles Award recipient as the nation's top assistant.

Streeter (who is also the coordinator of recruiting) will jump from $430,000 to $455,000. Bates, who coached the entire defensive line in 2017 but will shift over to just tackles in 2018 now that Clemson has added new assistant Lemanski Hall, will make $300,000. That is up from $250,000 for Bates in 2017. Hall will also start at $300,000 in his first season as one of the 10 full-time assistants.

Caldwell, the offensive line coach will make $540,000, up from $515,000. Cornerbacks coach Conn, following his first season as one of the ten coaches, jumps from $350,000 to $370,000. Pearman will earn $480,000 this year, an increase from $460,000 in 2017, and Reed goes up by $20,000, as well. Reed is set to make $440,000 this year, up from $420,000 in 2017.

Every assistant coach also will receive bonuses based on performance in 2018. An ACC Championship appearance, a bowl with eight or more regular season wins, a New Year’s Six bowl not in the playoff, a College Football Playoff appearance, a national championship appearance, or certain benchmarks in terms of rankings at the end of the year will translate to more cash in their pockets.

The Board of Trustees approved the hire of Wesley Goodwin as a defensive analyst at a salary of $101,000.